FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
Everything people ask before running a Melio Prism assessment: product, process, pricing, and the framework behind it. Stage-specific questions live on each stage page.
The product
What is Melio Prism?
Melio Prism is a multi-tier organizational health assessment. One 105-question instrument is administered across up to six levels of a company, scored on ten health dimensions, and resolved into one of sixteen archetypes with a tier-gap analysis and a sequenced 90-day action plan.
Who is Melio Prism built for?
Founder-led and mid-market organizations, roughly 10 to 1,000+ employees, where leadership intent and frontline reality have room to diverge. Consultants also run it with their clients; team and firm plans exist for that.
How is this different from an employee engagement survey?
Engagement surveys measure how people feel; Prism measures how the organization functions, and measures it from every level at once. The output is not a morale score, it is a structural diagnosis: an archetype, ranked tier gaps across ten dimensions, and a plan.
How is this different from a consultant-led assessment?
It is the instrument a good consultant would build with weeks of interviews, run in about 15 minutes per respondent and scored consistently every time. Many consultants use Prism as their diagnostic phase and spend their time on what it surfaces instead of on data collection.
What does the report look like?
A full anonymized sample report is public at melioprism.com/sample-report.html. It shows the archetype profile, dimension scorecards, tier gap map, root-cause analysis, and the 90-day roadmap exactly as a customer receives them.
Running an assessment
How long does an assessment take to run?
Each respondent needs about 15 minutes. Most organizations keep the collection window open one to two weeks, then close it and receive the full report within a business day.
Are individual responses anonymous?
Yes, structurally. Each respondent gets a unique anonymous link tied only to their tier, and nothing in the report attributes any answer to an individual. That anonymity is what makes frontline answers honest.
How many respondents do we need?
There is no hard minimum, but tier-gap analysis becomes meaningful once at least two organizational levels each have a few respondents. Broader participation sharpens every finding, which is why invitations support CSV upload for the whole roster.
What if our company doesn't have six management levels?
Most don't. Respondents self-select from plain-language tier descriptions, and smaller organizations simply use the tiers they have. The analysis adapts to the levels present.
Can we run it more than once to track progress?
Yes, and that is the recommended pattern: the Baseline + Follow-up plan pairs two assessments, typically three to six months apart, so you can see whether the gaps you acted on actually closed and whether your archetype is moving where you intend.
Pricing
How much does Melio Prism cost?
A single assessment is $2,499, one-time, including the full instrument for up to six tiers, the diagnostic report, and the 90-day roadmap. The Baseline + Follow-up plan is $3,999 for two full assessments. There are no subscriptions or per-seat fees.
Are there plans for consultants or firms?
Yes. Team and firm plans with multiple seats and volume pricing are available for consulting practices that run Prism with their clients; contact hello@melioconsulting.com.
Does the price depend on how many employees respond?
No. Pricing is per assessment, not per respondent, so inviting your whole organization costs the same as inviting a sample, and broader participation produces a sharper diagnosis.
The framework
What are the seven business stages?
Startup, growth, scaling, mature, turnaround, acquisition/integration, and succession transition. A stage is defined by the problem the organization is currently solving, not by its age or size. Each stage is documented in full at melioprism.com/stages.
What are the sixteen archetypes?
Six Active & Thriving identities (Operator, Magnet, Blueprint, Vanguard, Compass, Steward), two Alternative Growth identities (Switchboard, Aggregator), three Owner-Adjacent identities (Anchor, Sovereign, Guardian), and five Warning States (Ceiling, Pinball, Relic, Commodity, Hollow).
What are the ten health dimensions?
Strategic Clarity, Execution Quality, Culture & People, Financial Health, Systems & Process, Communication, Innovation & Adaptability, Resilience, Market Position, and Sustainability. Every dimension is scored at every tier, so the report reads both levels and gaps.
Is the scoring methodology public?
The framework is public: stages, archetypes, dimensions, tier structure, and how they interact are all documented on this site. The scoring weights, thresholds, and the question bank itself are proprietary; that engine is the product.
See where your organization actually stands.
Melio Prism runs one instrument across every tier of your organization and turns the gaps between levels into a diagnosis, an archetype, and a 90-day plan.